Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Up North, strange!

I have never understood the North: flat caps, pigeons, whippets, mushy peas etc., it is beyond a soft Southerners understanding, so what is happening? Has there been a mass conversion?

Not only has the Bishop of Shrewsbury been opening (not closing) shrines and welcoming the ICKSP into his diocese in the North West but on the same day the Bishop of Middlesbrough in the North East has been presiding over a pilgrimage of hundreds to York organised by the LMS.
Amazing!

Not only that but Bishop Campbell has apparently renewed the Sacrament of Penance single handed in his diocese. Hope this trend doesn't move south, it could be dangerous...

Now then, our brothers in Christ in the South - in the North we may do things more differently than you do - but nevermind.

+ Michael Campbell is doing great things with the Sacrament of Confession.

+ Mark Davies is just getting it right - as we would expect.

+ Terry Drainey is treading water well.

Now that leaves us with the Archdiocese of Liverpool and++ Archbishop Patrick Kelly - who has recently returned from Yorkshire land,after persecuting his priests with his tales and meanderings, while on retreat with them.

So there you have it - don't bother with Hallam - that has the same leadership as Liverpool.

You are better looking over the boarder to Scotland and His Eminence Cardinal Keith O' Brien.

I was there and yes there certainly was a girl server although she seems not to be in the photograph and didn't play a prominent part.

It was a wonderful occasion for those of us who rarely get the chance to attend Latin mass, bishop Drainey gave a decent homily about relativism and liberalism (at least he's treading water and not going under) and the procession through York city centre, to the bemusement of hundreds of shoppers, was a thoroughly uplifting act of public witness.

Fr Blake’s comment about Shrewsbury and the North reminds me of the student my niece knew in Cambridge. The student came from the Deep South and thought that Cambridge was in the North. Because Cambridge was north of where she came from she felt she was in the North. Just as Fr Blake thinks that Shrewsbury must be in the North because it’s north of Birmingham.As for flat caps, pigeons etc, I take it that that’s meant as a joke. Like all good stereotypes it applies to some but by no means all. A bit dated, too. We might as well say that Southerners all speak with a lah-de-dah accent and wear bowler hats.

GOR - you did not imbibe enough Geordie culture during your time there. The correct syntax should be the Southerners "DIVN'T kna' owt aboot nowt"Re: mushy peas. Have you ever TRIED them; they're ectually rahther naice. So naice that one can bay them dine h-yar, from Herrod's - my dears, where else? Don't slag off the Geordies; if it were not for them, we'd all be wearing kilts and eating haggis for breakfast. (Actually, haggis is quite nice, too)You have been warned,MGeneral, GKGB (Geordieland Komity fa Good Beer)

Having lived in the North for some time many years ago Father, I would say that your average Geordie would respond that Southerners know “owt about nowt…”

Sorry to correct GOR but he has it the wrong way round. It should be 'nowt about owt'. In other words, for the southern effetes, that Southerners know 'nothing about anything'.

As I write this, having doffed my flat cap to do so, my whippet is at my feet, my pint is to hand, my pencil is behind my ear, my wife is cleaning my boots, and my coal fire is roaring up the chimney so the front room will be warm when I get into my tin bath. And we have two wonderful Masses oop north as well. Isn't life grand.

O dearie me no Father Blake, Shrewsbury's nowhere near t'North. You forget that Brighton is so close to London that if you come off the M25 slip road fast enough at Redhill centrifugal force will pretty much get you to the outskirts of the town. Shrewsbury's definitely a trip that needs a pack of sandwiches and some crips, but if you want real North, then it's a full flask and a couple of food stops before the great Angel of the North welcomes you to Hexham and Newcastle. Not that many willingly contemplate the rigours of that journey without making sure their affairs are in order...

To Mike and Andy: thanks for the reminders and corrections. It has been over 40 years and memory fades with age. I had previously lived near London for a couple of years but felt much more at home in the North. Where I worked there were some retired miners and ex-servicemen who took great delight in flummoxing me with the ‘dialect’. I be gannin’ noo…

father,i am no lover of anything latin but,instead of ignoring it our Bishops should learn to co-exist with the Latin,our parish has one a week,our pp learnt the Latin because of the shortage of priests who can say this type of mass.I hadn't looked at it in this context;Bishop Mark Davies in his homily at the re-opening of that wonderful shrine church;The Holy Father reminds us'It is not appropriate to speak of two versions of The Roman Missal as if they were Two Rites,but a two-fold use of one and the same',our Bishop has started to accomodate The Latin,y dont the others do the same,what have they to lose???

Well Fr., you asked for some of those comments.I well remember one boy getting on the same bus as I was on, at a place called Tingley. He took offence when someone spoke to him in the local dialect. His words were "Doan't thee tha me, thee tha thysen an see 'ow tha likes it" I've never forgotten that outburst. He was a pupil at the same Grammar School as I was. Nice lad! I'm sure that he did well eventually.I must confess that I had a firm opinion that Catholicism in England grew stronger the further North one went. We always regarded Southerners as being rather soft.My opinions may have softened a bit but I think that this opinion was one which was quite prevalent in the North when I was a boy.I am delighted to read about the Bishop of Shrewsbury and also about the gathering in York. York is a place which is very well known to me and one which I have visited many times.Have any of you ever thought just how many Monasteries there were in Yorkshire? Name me one County which had as many! I have visited most of them!

Thanks be to God for 2 wonderful celebrations in the EF by 2 diocesan bishops on the same day. Can we invite you, Fr Ray, to visit York for the 2013 Margaret Clitherow Pilgrimage? Unless we have another extraordinary one-off on the same day next year we may (DV) be back to another huge turnout like 2011. (Don't worry I'm sure you'll get through our much more efficient Border Force if you tell them you are coming to an LMS event)

Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia, et ubi ecclesia vita eterna

Pray for Francis our Pope, and for the Church of God

My Parish's Website

Comments

Comments may or may not be published. The choice is made on the spur of the moment and is purely arbitary. I do not necessarily agree with all comments published but they are published in the interest of debate. If you object go here.